'Avengers: Endgame' Theory Posits That Galactus Is the Next "Big Bad"

Avengers: Endgame may have ended with Thanos’ snap, but a new theory suggests he did it to save Earth from Galactus.

Known primarily as a Fantastic Four villain, Galactus is a powerful entity known as the devourer of planets. Now that Disney has bought several of 20th Century Fox’s assets, including the rights to Fantastic Four, his introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is possible.

Galactus

Redditor u/jlefrench suggests that Thanos knew Galactus was coming, and didn’t want the same thing that happened to Titan to happen to Earth.

Galactus eats planets, sometimes to comedic effect, in the various animated series that feature it.

It seems a little far-fetched since Thanos isn’t exactly merciful, and even killed Gamora to get the Soul Stone. Plus, the Mad Titan was the one to come up with the idea to kill half of Titan anyway, so how does Galactus factor in?

Well, in Avengers: Infinity War, the implication is that climate change and a lack of resources is what led to Titan’s fall, but that doesn’t explain why and how Thanos became the sole survivor or how that caused Titan to tilt on its axis.

Oh, hello. Could Galactus be a factor in 'Avengers: Endgame'?

The theory claims that Titan wasn’t eradicated because of climate change at all, but that Galactus devoured the core of the planet and its life energy.

Galactus destroying the root of what holds the planet together is what caused Titan to tilt on its axis, lose its gravity, and starve the remainder of its living creatures, posits this fascinating theory.

Galactus as they appear in the comics.

Galactus “eats planets when they are ‘ripe.’ Thanos, being ‘cursed with knowledge,’ figured out that Galactus would not attack any planets if they do not have enough life energy to eat. This is the key to Thanos’s entire motivation, to destroy Galactus’s food source so that the other half the of the universe will survive,” u/jlefrench writes.

Thanos

Theories that Thanos isn’t the ultimate big bad of Endgame aren’t new, with the most recent one focusing on how it was Doctor Strange who knew someone more powerful was coming.

However, this theory is the only one that claims Thanos snapped half of Earth’s population out of existence as a mercy and not a show of power. The theory explains the causes for Titan’s devastation, but doesn’t necessarily account for why Thanos is the only survivor.

Maybe Thanos left the planet knowing there was nothing he could do and that’s when he decided to go in search of the Infinity Stones.

Is Galactus coming?

Though the theory is an interesting one and could definitely come to fruition now that Disney, and by extension Marvel, has the rights to Galactus, the idea that Thanos would be willing to save Earth from Galactus that may be swallow for some fans.

Could we see this scene in 'Avengers: Endgame'?

If the goal was to prevent Galactus from destroying Earth, couldn’t there have been another way to do it? Wouldn’t it have been wiser to work with the Avengers to try and stop it from happening? No matter the reason, if Galactus is indeed the true big bad of Endgame, then Thanos has a lot of explaining to do.

WATCH: Do you know who's still together after the snap?

Avengers: Endgame hits theaters April 26, 2019.

Correction 3/14/2019: An earlier version of this article stated that Thanos killed Gamora for the Reality Stone; he killed her for the Soul Stone.